Brendan Rodgers is planning talks with Leicester over the future of Filip Benkovic.
The defender is on loan to Celtic at the moment but the English side has an option to recall him in January.
Benkovic has been in outstanding form at the heart of the hoops defence- instantly solving a problem position thanks to his partnership with Dedryck Boyata.
Manchester United’s interest in Harry Maguire is the cloud on the horizon but after resisting interest during the summer Leicester are likely to hold firm in January.
At the weekend Claude Puel spoke about getting Benkovic back in the summer with a season of playing experience behind him with Rodgers hoping to get confirmation of that development.
“We haven’t had confirmation of that but it would be great for Leicester, for Filip and for us [if he stayed],” the Celtic boss told the Evening Times. “I think he’s shown that, at 21, he’s a big talent and the whole idea of him coming here was to experience what it’s like at a huge club – playing, being developed and then arriving back at Leicester ready to play in the Premier League.
“Every challenge he’s had since he came up here, whether it was the Leipzig game or any other, he’s been first class in dealing with it. He’s a fantastic young player and it would be great to have him for the rest of the campaign.
“We have good relations with Leicester but it’s been a very delicate time for them so I haven’t been pushing anything with them. We haven’t been in contact with them since the unfortunate accident; we’ve taken a step back from it and we’ll address it at the right time.”
Since coming into the Celtic side Benkovic has only lost three goals, two against Hibs and one at home to RB Leipzig, in 10 appearances.
His partnership with Boyata has formed the backbone of Celtic’s success but after costing Leicester £13m when he joined from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer there is very little chance of his loan deal becoming permanent.
